Music Information

Is Your Child Struggling in School? Get Him (Or Her) Music Lessons


This is counterintuitive, I know. Our natural response to seeing our child struggle is to find a way to help, not to add to the burden. If a child is struggling, why should we risk setting them up for failure in music lessons?

The answer is simple. Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. That's right. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks!

What they found, when comparing a group of students taking music lessons with a control group that was not, was that students who had taken as few as ten music lessons over a five week period exhibited a significant ear to hand link.

So? What's the big deal? Life doesn't make much use of ear to hand connections unless you want to play an instrument by ear (I've always thought that provoked a strange mental picture - imagine the ears you'd have to have to play the trombone!). The significance is two fold. First, it means that music lessons lead to brain development which ultimately means that music lessons have the effect of giving the individual that is taking the lessons improved brain function from which to draw in the rest of his or her life. Second, (and I saved the best for last) the ear to hand brain connection from music lessons is significant because researchers in Hong Kong took the study one step further and tested a group of students with music lessons and a group without music lessons for verbal memory and found that the group that was taking music lessons outscored their nonmusical peers by a significant margin.

It gets better still. The same groups of students were tested a year later, even after some of them had discontinued their music lessons, and found that they still outscored their nonmusical peers in verbal tests!

The moral to that story is get your child (or even yourself) into music lessons if you want your child to have every advantage possible in life, because these are only two benefits that we know of, but there are bound to be far more yet to be discovered.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions" with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com


MORE RESOURCES:

TrustedReviews

Music companies to police illegal downloads
Times Online, UK - 1 hour ago
The music industry yesterday announced that it was forming an alliance with ISPs to monitor downloading, issue warning letters and ultimately restrict ...
British Net Firms in Music Piracy Deal TIME
Should the music industry tax you to use the Web? CNET News
Parents face fines if children illegally download music or films ... Telegraph.co.uk
Reuters - guardian.co.uk
all 486 news articles


Russell Brand hosting MTV Video Music Awards
The Associated Press - 51 minutes ago
The British actor and comedian will host this year's Video Music Awards, set to air live from Paramount Pictures Studios in Los Angeles on Sept. 7. ...


Fluid Music's Trusonic(R) Extends Growing Relationship With Guitar ...
FOXBusiness - 9 hours ago
By providing strategic control of music, messaging and ad placement, Trusonic solutions build on existing brand awareness while generating new revenue ...


Yahoo! Music Store Support Dead by Sept. 30
PC Magazine - 1 hour ago
by Chloe Albanesius Several months after the Microsoft MSN Music Store snafu, Yahoo announced Wednesday night that support for the Yahoo! ...
Yahoo Music Shuts Down, Your Music is Kaput Marketing Shift.com
all 3 news articles


Music and stars take center stage at Lick Observatory
San Jose Mercury News,  USA - 59 minutes ago
The concert was part of the "Music of the Spheres" summer concert series running through Sept. 5. Tickets range in price from $30-150 and include an ...


Yahoo Music follows MSN into DRM controversy
CNET News, CA - 6 hours ago
Yahoo is shutting off support for Yahoo Music after Sept. 30, which means starting Oct. 1 if users want to move music to new hard drives or computers, ...
Yahoo! Music to drop support for purchased DRM tracks Yahoo! Tech
Here We Go Again: Yahoo! Music Throws Away the DRM Keys EFF
all 3 news articles


UK Proposes Music Flat Tax
PC Magazine - 3 hours ago
by Brian Heater Leave it to our friends across the pond to come up with a creative, tax-heavy way of punishing music downloaders. ...


Seattle Post Intelligencer

At Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, city and country come ...
Seattle Post Intelligencer - 1 hour ago
By RM CAMPBELL The Olympic Music Festival is not the only chamber music festival in the Northwest that holds its concerts in a barn. ...
Chamberfest ’08 — Ottawa’s Premiere Music Festival The Epoch Times
Morning chats late-night pints Ottawa Citizen
all 3 news articles


Music is all in the family for Matt Pryor, who has two albums ...
Kansas City Star, MO - 18 hours ago
As his family has grown, Matt Pryor’s music world has adapted accordingly: He tours less, he writes and records at home, and when he hits the road, ...


MediaPost Publications

American Eagle Outfitters Summer Music Festival, New American ...
Business Wire (press release), CA - 9 hours ago
The New American Music Union festival combines some of the most innovative and popular artists with 15 of the country’s best college bands. ...
AOL Music Launches Tour Tracker MediaPost Publications
AOL Music Launches Tour Tracker Business Wire (press release)
all 15 news articles

Music - Google News

home | site map
© 2006